EPA Expands Groundwater Contaminant Removal at New York Superfund Site

The EPA will hold a public meeting on March 7, 2018 to discuss the proposed cleanup

The U.S. EPA proposed a plan to clean up contaminated groundwater in the eastern area of the Old Roosevelt Field Contaminated Groundwater Area Superfund site in Garden City, N.Y. Under the proposed cleanup plan, the EPA will use a treatment process to remove contaminants where trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) were detected. This will reduce potential threats to people’s health by removing and treating the chemicals in the groundwater.

The plan expands on the finalized 2007 cleanup plan and is estimated to cost approximately $13.5 million. The EPA will hold a public meeting on March 7, 2018 to explain the proposed cleanup plan, and take public comments on the proposal and other alternatives considered.

A treatment system, which uses a process called air stripping, was installed by the Village of Garden City in 1987 and upgraded in the late 1990s to remove contaminants from two public drinking water supply wells just south of the airfield after TCE and PCE were discovered in the Village of Garden City public supply wells. The site was added to the Superfund list in May 2000.